Shadowed
by We Stole Vodka From The Optic
Summary: Shadows and their adjectives. Character studies. P4.


**Badbadbathhouse kink meme prompt:**

**(Hopefully) Interesting prompt**

**I apologize in advance for the length of this post.**

**So I noticed that some of the shadows in each dungeon have certain descriptive adjectives in their names, and I've always thought that these represented certain aspects of that victim's personality. I thought it would be interesting if one could write a word prompt-style fill describing situations in which each aspect of each character's personality is shown. You could take on one character at a time or even just one word.**

**I'll list them below (note that I'm only listing descriptive words, and omitting the ones that appear in every dungeon, such as "Rainy").**

**(truncated due to list of adjectives)**

* * *

Shadowed

* * *

**[Slipping]**

Screw this town.

He flips his headphones. Flicks the volume _up, up, up. _Let the music block out everything, the words, the whispers, the glares of the housewives who do nothing but _watch. _Vultures.

_Up._

It isn't his fault. Why does everyone have to pretend like it is? Use him as a scapegoat, too cowardly to say these things to his dad. Say 'em to the _Junes kid. _He can't do anything about it. Nothing at all.

_Up._

He'll laugh, he'll joke. Anything to make them shut up. Pretend he's carefree, like nothing bothers him. When _everything does._

_Up._

"It sucks that I always gotta mind my manners." He tells Souji, with a wink and a smile and a half-hearted laugh. And Souji'll look at him with those sharp eyes. Disbelieving.

_Up and away._

* * *

**[Lying]**

Manners.

Poise.

Elegance.

All the points of being a _manager in training. Such fine points. _Manners, Yuki-chan. Smile, nod, keep your words crafted and collected. No room for coarse language here. You must act like this, act like that.

She smiles, nods, gestures. It all feels like lies, to her, but she can't really do anything _about it._

_Lie to our costumers, Yuki-chan. We must make them feel like they are at home._

Smile, don't let the lines on your face show your agitation. Hands held in front, honest gestures.

What a lack of honesty she feels.

* * *

**[Positive]**

Jealousy, Chie thinks, is something that swallows you whole. Eats away at you on the inside, chewing you up and spitting you out.

She always say positive things, _Hey red looks pretty good on you, Yukiko._

_I wish I looked that good in red, _she tries to swallow these words. _But I'll never be as pretty as you._

* * *

**[Crying]**

It hurts.

Rejection.

_You like to sew? That's so gay!_

Yell, scream. Like that'll make 'em scared. It works.

_Get away from me, you weirdo! _

Glare, spit out words, "I ain't done nothin' to you! Get bent!"

_Punk-ass kids, these days, I swear._

Throw things. Scream. Yell. Routine for him.

_Kanji, you're making me get a few more gray hairs each year, young man._

When it's all over, cry. Alone. Manly thing to do.

* * *

**[Enslaved]**

Lights. Camera. _Action._

The shot must look beautiful, the tilt of the head just right. Do this, Risette, do that.

_My name, _she wants to say, _is Rise._

Risette, your smile must be wider. Think up happy thoughts! Position legs just so. Be a tease, Risette!

_But that isn't who I am._

Oh, don't be silly Risette! You must do this, for the good of your career!

And she will do it, because she is a slave to this business

Lights, camera, action.

_Let yourself go, Risette._

* * *

**[Forgotten]**

Of all the things he fears, being forgotten may be the worst.

Each time they crawl back into those stacked TVs, he wonders if maybe they will never come again. And he'll be alone, as it's always been, for as long as he can remember.

Forgotten, in a world of fog.

"Grr… you'll come again, right Sensei?" He asks. Sensei's the last to leave, hand already half in the TV. His smile widens.

"Of course I will."

Teddie will hold him to that.

* * *

**[Escapist]**

Escape.

This is a word Mitsuo Kubo knows well. His fingers are glued to the buttons, his eyes to the screen. The people of this place love him. _Hero, Hero, Hero._

They all want him, need him.

Close the blinds, dim the lights, and get sucked into a better place. No teachers here, no students and no responsibilities.

Forget reality, he doesn't need it.

He has everything he needs in these games. Recognition, fame, acknowledgment.

Love.

In April, sirens blare outside his window.

He opens the blinds, OST hanging in the air around him. _Beep boop beep beep_

Whodunit?

_Idunit!_

* * *

**[Dogmatic]**

She clips her papers to the wall. Tape here, tape there.

Sip, sip. The coffee of the IPD is sour and bitter; an acquired taste.

_They sent a kid, _Dojima-san's voice, angry and rigid, _of all the—_

And Adachi-san's laughter, heady and tinged with resentment, _You know, you're pretty sharp. For a kid, I mean._

Adult. Boy. Everything she should be yet am not.

Clip the papers.

Create observations.

How? When? Why and where?

* * *

**[Lost]**

Mayumi Yamano adjusted his collar, tightened his tie.

"I'll see you again," She whispers, voice choked with sadness, resentment, and something deeper he can't exactly place. "When all of this dies down, maybe?"

He doesn't answer. He doesn't know.

So he just kisses her, like he loves her. He thinks he might. She's all he's really got left right now.

So much he could have said, but he just leaves. She watches him go, the last words she'll ever say to him hanging in the air around them.

Namatame stops at the doorframe, hand on the doorknob. A feeling overcomes him. All the things he's ever wanted to tell her bubble to his lips, but they never make it past his mouth.

He leaves.

Not a day will go by that year that he doesn't wonder if maybe so much could have changed if he had just stayed.

* * *

**[Happy]**

Adachi knows one thing, and only one thing for sure: Happiness is a lie.

This is his truth. Who in this world is truly happy?

He can't remember ever being happy. His life has been start-to-finish a complete and utter mess.

_(he remembers the day his father left with his newer, prettier wife. His mother had cried and cried, __**it's all your fault)**_

Adachi waits on the edge of Magatsu Inaba, legs dangling over the edge.

_(alcohol became her crutch. He remembers twisting a bottle from her fingers and cracking it over her head, screaming and yelling. She smiled up at him through a haze of alcohol with glass and blood in her hair)_

The sky is ever-turning. Black as sin, red as blood.

_(his first girlfriend. Shigeko Takeda. Shi-chan. She slapped him in the middle of Shibuya station. He choked her half-dead in bed.)_

Adachi watches them crawl like rats in his maze.

_(against regulations, bad conduct, great potential wasted, transfer, Inaba – eventually he just stopped listening. It just wasn't worth it anymore.)_

Adachi laughs, sad and twisted, because everything was in its own little way so _goddamn funny._

* * *

**[Divine]**

The boy is Izanagi in his own way. She sees it in the face, the cool façade. A personality like a slate.

Of the three, she had paid the least amount of attention to him. Now, in this place of fog and despair and death, she wonders if maybe she should have.

Emptiness: A man scraped clean of his love and life, the one who found meaning in the word savior and messiah. Her husband, in kindness and righteousness.

Despair: The complete lack of hope, a man who acted out of his own desires with little care for those around him. Her husband, in his anger and hate and vengeance.

Hope: The boy. Everything Izanagi had once been.

She waits at the top.

Let him come.

* * *

**Yosuke did not have a dungeon, but the first Shadows you fight in the game are "Slipping Hableries", which is where Slipping comes from.**

**Yukiko and Chie share a dungeon, which is why Chie appears. Same for Teddie and Rise.**

**Feedback is appreciated~!**


End file.
